China's Space Dreams Ride on Robotic Docking Test

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China, a burgeoning power in the world space community, is poised
to launch a test module for its first space station. The question
is, when?

The liftoff was initially expected to take place in the fall.
However, the Aug. 19 failure of an unmanned Chinese satellite to
enter orbit has delayed the rollout of the module, named
Tiangong-1 ("Heavenly Palace" in Chinese).

The space station precursor module is slated to launch on a
Chinese Long March 2F rocket, similar to the Long March 2C
booster that doomed the experimental SJ-11-04 satellite in
August. Chinese space officials have put a hold on the Tiangong
launch until the issue with the rocket is resolved. [ Photos:
China's First Space Station ]

Significant step

When China does succeed in launching Tiangong-1, it will mark the
first in a series of steps toward the nation's goal of building
its own
60-ton space station by the year 2020. An unmanned Shenzhou 8
spacecraft would launch a couple of months after Tiangong-1
and dock with it, in a demonstration of the autonomous docking
technology necessary for assembling the station.

"The ability to do that robotically is going to certainly be a
technological step forward for them," said Joan Johnson-Freese,
chairwoman of the Department of National Security Studies at the
Naval War College in Newport, R. I. "Some people have compared
this to where we were at with Gemini. But we were doing it with
people. If they can do it with robotics, it's a demonstration of
a technological step forward."

China launched one astronaut on its first manned spacecraft,
Shenzhou 5, in 2003. Since then it has sent five more men into
space and performed
the nation's first spacewalk.

"They have clearly established themselves in the top tier of
spacefaring countries," Johnson-Freese told SPACE.com. "There are
only three countries in the world who have the ability for human
spaceflight, and China's one of them. If it were easy, there
would be more countries that would have done it."

Long-term goals

China has announced its plans to build the manned space station,
but beyond that, it isn't sharing.

"It's part of a multiphase, incremental, but very ambitious
program," Johnson-Freese said. "You go to low-Earth orbit, then
you go on to the moon. If you have the political will and the
funding, you continue from there. They have not officially
declared for a manned lunar landing, but clearly that's the brass
ring they will eventually reach for when they have proved the
technology along the way."

China's space ambitions serve multiple national goals. By
charting achievements in space, the nation is driving the
development of its science and technology community, increasing
its military might, and sending a powerful signal about its
status to people at home and abroad.

"Space is very much an indicator of a country's willingness to
look into the future," Johnson-Freese said. "It has a lot of
symbolic resonance as well."

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Clara Moskowitz on
Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz.
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